Algiers - 1938

Animator Chuck Jones based the Warner Brothers cartoon character "Pepe le Pew" on the "Pepe le Moko" character played by Charles Boyer in this film.

The cast and credits are based on the 98-minute print shown on Turner Classic Movies, but the AFI Catalogue lists slightly different changes which suggest that their print may have been a re-release. In the AFI Catalogue listing, Sigrid Gurie's name is above the title with the rest of the cast list the same. The crew credits are identical, except that James Wong Howe is credited for "photography" instead of "director of photography." The latter terminology was rare in 1938, but not unheard of.

The title for this film was the inspiration for the later movie titled Casablanca (1942).

Charles Boyer's often repeated, and parodied, line "Come with me to the Casbah" was in the trailers but was never actually said in the film. According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine (July 2007), the line came from an impersonation of Boyer by the cartoon character Pepé Le Pew, in The Cats Bah (1954), an animated short."

Remake of the 1937 french film Pépé le Moko (1937). When Walter Wanger produced Algiers (1938), he tired to have all copies of the original "Pépé le Moko" destroyed. Fortunately, he was not able to do so.

Cast of Algiers

Charles Boyer as Pepe le Moko
Sigrid Gurie as Ines
Hedy Lamarr as Gaby
Joseph Calleia as Inspector Slimane
Alan Hale as Grandpere
Gene Lockhart as Regis
Walter Kingsford as Chef Inspector Louvain
'Paul Harvey as Commissioner Janvier